This essay looks into Italian fascism's cultural policies and their repercussionsto the Turin intellectual society in the 1930s. Seen from the perspective of stateformationas cultural revolution, Italian fascism can be considered as a totalitarianproject to build the nation-state based on the coherent and unitary national culture.
In particular, under the serious economic crisis, the regime began to make newefforts to intensify the fascistizzazione of culture, revealing the significant differencesfrom the former cultural policies. Yet, it seems retrospectively that theregime failed to make any serious inroads into Italian culture, at least, the territoriesof high culture. A case of the Turin intellectual society is symptomatic. Turin, thecapital of the Savoyard monarchy and modern industry, showed the remarkableinternal intellectual and cultural autonomy under the fascist rule. Turin intellectualsderived the resources for autonomy from the conservative-nationalistic valuesconnected with the monarchy and the liberal customs inspired by Gobetti, Croceand Einaudi etc. Indeed, a case of Turin implies that the so-called fascist culturalrevolution was a slow and partial process through adaptation and compromisewhich might be termed the “gradualist revolution.”